Midway through the third quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers’ win on Monday night over the Houston Rockets, head coach JJ Redick went away from starting center Deandre Ayton. He was subbed out with 4:55 remaining in the third quarter with the purple and gold trailing 72-68 and hadn’t produced much before then.
Ayton then sat for over a quarter of game time before being brought back into the mix at the 4:52 mark of the fourth quarter. He was tasked to join a lineup with Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Marcus Smart and Rui Hachimura — later replaced by LeBron James — with the Lakers trailing 88-87.
The big man then put together a massive series of plays to help the Lakers win. Ayton grabbed five rebounds — four of them on the offensive end — to go along with the go-ahead bucket as well as two late hook shots to seal the win. The decision to turn back to Ayton after so much time on the bench was a bold one, but it paid off in a massive way.
After the win, James was complimentary of what Ayton brought to the team down the stretch.
“He was amazing,” James said of Ayton on Spectrum SportsNet. “I mean, just the fact that he was sitting over there for as long as he did and stayed locked in on the game and come in and finish the game, got a tip dunk and a couple of jump hooks around the rim, a couple rebounds. He helped us finish the game.”
Redick also had huge praise for Ayton, discussing the decision to bring him back into the game and the conversation the two had directly after the win.
“We had a decision to make about who the fifth guy was gonna be in that timeout and we all recognized that he had not played in a significant portion of the game, and then you factor in the real-time effect of that,” Redick said on Spectrum SportsNet.
“I was pretty adamant that I wanted him in the game, Greg went over to him and made sure that he was ready to go. And he helped us win the game and that’s what I told him. We walked off the court together and he was in good spirits. But he did, his offensive rebounding and the couple of buckets he got down the stretch were huge.”
There have been valid criticisms of Ayton this season, particularly when it comes to his buy-in and focus on a consistent basis. Monday would have been the perfect opportunity for him to check out of the game and not dial back in after sitting for so long, and yet, he did exactly what the Lakers needed from him.
LeBron James describes Lakers win as playoff basketball
The Lakers won Monday’s game on the back of their defense, and not their offense. While it’s atypical of this Lakers team, James believes those are the types of wins they are going to need to have come playoff time. He described the win over the Rockets as playoff basketball because of how they stayed locked in defensively.
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